Lenovo Phab Plus #ExpressReview: Strictly for entertainment

Specs: 6.8-inch Full HD display | Snapdragon 615 Octa-core processor | 2GB RAM, 32GB storage space | 13 mp rear camera + 5 mp front camera | 3500 mAh battery| 4G Dual-SIM | Lenovo Phab Plus full specs

Lenovo Phab Plus comes with Android 5.0 OS.

Lenovo’s Phab Plus has a full-metal-body design, and it looks quite good. The gold and white phablet we got for review looks stylish, with the speaker grill on the back. Yes at 6.83-inches this phablet is really big, especially for people like me who have tiny hands, but then this one is meant purely for video consumption. I would suggest getting a cover for this though, because after a point holding such a large device in the middle of a TV-series binge session gets tiring.

I’ve had this phablet for a while, and so far I’ve not seen any chips or scratches on the outer-body, but the screen has got quite a few scratches, which is not such great news considering that this is the focus of the Phab Plus.

What’s good?

The Lenovo Phab Plus is meant for those who wish to consume video content on the go. And the screen has been made keeping that in mind. The colours are vivid and crisp, which is important given that this is a big screen. In fact when I switched on the Phab Plus, the first thing that really stood out for me was the screen.

Lenovo Phab Plus’ speakers are on the back of the device.

I downloaded quite a few movies from Google Play on this tablet, and the screen makes it worth a watch. I also watched an entire Netflix series on the Phab Plus and it works just fine. Surprisingly, I didn’t face too much buffering issues either, even though I was using the connection that is usually dubbed as the slower one.

The speakers with the Dolby Atmos help boost the overall entertainment experience. If you’re curled up in a corner of your house, watching a movie or TV show on this, the Phab Plus’ sound is good enough, and I never felt the need to crank up the volume to full. However, in a more crowded environment, I fear the rear-speakers might not be enough.

On the performance front, the Phab Plus doesn’t set any benchmarks on fire, but it will perform smoothly for multi-tasking, video-browsing, and even your HD games. I didn’t face any heating issues when using the tablet for long periods either.

The Phab Plus has battery that delivers well and easily lasted a day in my case. Even with the levels being below 40 per cent, I managed to get by with watching a couple of videos, which I’d say is quite good. This is important because the size of the device means that it won’t make for comfortable viewing, if you have the Phab Plus tethered to a charging point.

What’s not good?

While the screen size makes it perfect for videos, this size is also what makes it unwieldy and not something you can use easily for calls or even gaming.

The camera on the Phab Plus is not so impressive.

While the performance of the device gave me no reason to complain, I don’t ever see myself make calls with a device so large. But then in India, I’ve seen people use bigger tablets to make calls, so really it might not be a problem for some.

The camera app on the Lenovo Phab Plus is not great. Just a couple of uses convinced me that this was the least impressive feature on the Phab Plus, one that I would not be using at all. Frankly if you’re looking for a great camera-based ‘tablet-ish’ device, this one does not fit the bill.

Should you buy?

If the idea is to have a second device just to watch movies and surf the web occasionally, then sure you can consider the Lenovo Phab Plus. Personally, I liked vivid display and the audio playback, and it was a decent device for the entertainment part.

But the tablet market has been declining because not too many people appear keen on shelling close to Rs 20,000 for such a large device. And the Lenovo phablet is really a tablet, though it masquerades itself as a phablet.

Buy this one, if you don’t really need a full-fledged tablet but want a slightly bigger screen to watch movies on.